The Pinnacle Q4 2019
President’s Corner
3
Farewell Laureen
O
n December 31st, Laureen Boykin, our Senior Director of Products and Services, sailed off gracefully into a well-earned retirement after 20 years with Smart City. Laureen joined us as our General Manager of Telecommunications at the San Diego Convention Center when Smart City took over the in-house operation, back in 2000. Laureen moved into roles with ever-increasing responsibilities over the years and played a key role in a significant number of quality initiatives at Smart City including; the integration of the PNI and CCPI acquisitions, development of our Advanced Exhibitor Solutions team, tripling the use of our online ordering portal, and
Boosts Colorado Convention Center “Unbelievably attentive to all our requests for information (Wi-Fi usage) and changes (moving user counts to different SSIDs). All requests were delivered in timely and professional fashion. There was always follow up (most times in person) to ensure our requests were met to our expectations and all services were functioning without issue. Can’t say enough about Tommie Beltz (Customer Sales & Service Manager), Debbie Olivas (General Manager) and the entire Smart City team at CCC!” Aaron Schuette, GABF America’s Center Convention Complex “Daryl Olson (General Manager), I also want to make sure you know how much we enjoyed working with you and your
oversight of numerous successful RFP responses for both new and existing Smart City accounts. She did all of this while also running one of the larger regions within the Smart City operations team for five years. Laureen has been a true trailblazer as a woman in leadership both in Smart City and the meetings industry. She has always lived by the motto that there were consequences to a person’s actions and decisions. While it was difficult for some folks to receive that message from Laureen, they all knew she was right and delivered the message in the spirit of constructive criticism. Laureen leaves a team of excellent leaders who mentored under her and are ready to take on more challenges.
she carried the torch and completed the project. I could always count on her getting a project to its successful completion. Speaking to Laureen just two weeks after her retirement, she is easily transitioning into this new chapter. She is sleeping past 6 am and has embraced the beauty of an afternoon nap! Her plans for the future are to completely spoil her 10 grandkids in the Little Rock area and to never, ever answer another RFP. Sounds like a good plan. Congratulations Laureen, we will miss you.
I will miss Laureen personally, as she made me a better leader. She wasn’t shy in expressing her opinions and views. Still, once we made a team decision,
team over the years. You have always been very easy to work with and very responsive to our needs. I doubt we will experience the same with other vendors moving forward.” Doug Belew, Technical Services, NISC Show Management Virginia Beach Convention Center “Ryan McCart (General Manager) was great in facilitating and meeting any of our needs. The on-site rep, Justin LaPrad (Technician), was great as well.” Brian York, Sentara Heart and Vascular Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center “On the day of our event, we had some last-minute internet needs. Guillermo Huerta (Customer Sales & Service Manager) was very quick and responsive and able to take care of us right away. That was especially important and allowed us to not have to worry about this particular need of the
day. Guillermo was there through the whole event, to help answer questions and make sure we had what we needed. We very much appreciated him!” Texas Business Hall of Fame, Show Management Fort Worth Convention Center “Janae Tinsley (General Manager), the conference gets better every year, so we were very pleased with how everything went. It was great working with you again. Also, it was a pleasure working with Josiah Boone (Technician) again this year. He always does a great job and is readily available for my random requests!” Retail Now, Show Management Tampa Convention Center “Mitch Hughes (General Manager) is always awesome and goes above and beyond, but he has some competition in the service department with Madison Grimes (CSSR II) being just as awesome.” IBEX, Show Management
